Diana Barnato Walker, a World War II veteran who was the first British woman to pilot an airplane at supersonic speed, has died. She was 90.
A granddaughter of Barney Barnato, a co-founder of the De Beers mining group in South Africa, Diana Barnato was a spirited debutante and party girl who volunteered to be a Red Cross nurse in France in 1940.
Though she had less than 10 hours of flying experience, she passed the test in 1941 to join the Air Transport Auxiliary, which recruited civilian pilots to ferry new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between British factories and assembly plants during World War II.
Her wartime assignments included delivering some 240 Spitfire fighters.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
